Got to admire Michaelís honesty. It must have been absolute hell, staying in the best hotels, flying first class and all the rest. Somedays they even had to train twice a day! We now all know what our top players have to go through on international duty. When you are scrimping and saving , to try and get the money together to take your kids/ grandkids, to a top game with all the expence that involves , think about what these poor souls sacrifice for our enjoyment of the beautiful game. The great Nat Lofthouse , on an end of season tour late 1950s, once remarked to his teammates , who were looking out of the coach window on the way to the airport at miners on their way to an early shift at a Lancashire pit : ď bloody hell lads, arenít we lucky buggers, being paid to go and kick ball about in another country, all expenses paid, while those poor souls have got to go to the bowels of the earth just to earn a few quid! ď

Good point about those two Pete .You are a cricket follower. This season lím on Hampshire 10/ 1 Div 1 and Northants 10/1 for Div 2 EW 1- 3 in the .County Championship. Did well last season on Lancs and Northants EW at good odds. Can l repeat it this season?

I am not looking to make any excuses for Carrick-far from it but I think he has chosen the wrong definition to spout what he has said.

Rather than being depressed the question is WHY FFS! or is it that what you meant to say in a more simple and articulate way is that " I get called up to games and also Tournaments and even the World Cup squads and I hardly get any playing time, so I am delighted at being considered and then despondent not to get a game which makes me depressed".

So he has a ton of cash and has not got any financial worries for ever but that does not ensure he is intelligent enough or is it a smart reporter takes a word out a conversation and leads with it.

Anyone would be pissed off in getting into the final squad to be overlooked time and time again, as I said earlier I am not making any excuses for him but the choice of words maybe were not the best.

Just a thought-he is not saying I will not play for England, he is saying I get selected for the quad and hardly feature, Gerrard and Lampard were delighted to keep Carrick out of the picture for so long as they had managers who chose them continually irrespective of whether it was good for the team-cronyism for sure. Not to say both Gerrard and Lampard were not great players but all 3 could not play together and Carrick has won at club level more than most.

As someone who has been present at the overwhelming majority of England appearances for all 3 that you mention Leslie, it still leaves me cold that Gerrard has over 100 caps. Flatters to deceive doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about Gerrard.

As someone who has been present at the overwhelming majority of England appearances for all 3 that you mention Leslie, it still leaves me cold that Gerrard has over 100 caps. Flatters to deceive doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about Gerrard.

I did not want to have to mention anything about Gerrard for fear of my obvious allegences to MUFC! _________________Leslie Millman
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